Asheville’s Recycling Program Receives Award

June 16, 2011

The Carolina Recycling Association honored the City of Asheville with its “Best Local Government Recycling Program” award. This award is only handed out to one city in North Carolina or South Carolina. Asheville’s recycling program received the award because they have successfully provided a complete recycling program to its residents. In fact, 80% of Asheville’s inhabitants utilize the Asheville residential curbside and city facilities regularly, the highest participation levels in the state. The recipient of the Carolina Recycling Association’s award serves as a model for other government agencies within both North Carolina and South Carolina on how they can implement successful recycling programs in their respective cities.

The City of Asheville has set a goal of 80% carbon reduction within its city limits by the year 2050. Their recycling program is just one step in that journey. Since its implementation in 1997, the residential curbside recycling program in Asheville has taken in more than 90,000 tons of recycled material. That is more than 90,000 tons of material that has been kept out of the landfills and re-used into the system, which also reduces the drain on our resources by using less materials initially in new products.

Asheville contracts with Curbside Management to provide their curbside recycling program to residents. Two bins are provided to each Asheville household specifically for recyclable materials (one bin is for glass, plastic, newspapers, cardboard boxes and metal cans while the other bin can be used for junk mail, cereal boxes, magazines, catalogs, paper shopping bags, etc). The bins are picked up by Curbside Management every other week. If you have questions about how to participate in Asheville’s residential curbside recycling program, please contact Curbside Management at 828-252-2532 or visit their website.

You don’t have to wait for someone to pick up your recyclable materials, however. Any Asheville resident can drop off their recyclable goods at any one of the following locations:

Congratulations to Asheville’s recycling program for receiving this fantastic award. It’s a combined victory for both the city’s efforts as well as its people. This is yet another reason why Asheville real estate is tops. Our city is beautiful because we make an effort to keep it that way. Let’s continue our efforts for generations to come.